Tag: Sitecore

Siteocre Personalize – Create a triggered experience to send abandon cart mail

This blog describes the step by step process to create a triggered expereience in Sitecore Personalize to send a abandon cart mail.

Create Experience

Choose Triggered Experience

Name the experience

Configure API Request

Choose a connection created in this blog post – here

Configure the reponse

Save and Close

Start the Expereince and select option “Run immediately”

Steps to add abandon the cart-

Step 1 – View event

Follow the blog post – here

Step 2- Identity event

Follow the blog post – here

Step 3- Add event

Follow the blog post – here

Step 4 – Force Close event

Follow the blog post – here OR wait for session to expire ( normally 20 minutes or as configured in POS)

Mail is delivered to the customer

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Sitecore Personalize – Create connection used by triggered experience

Create connection to external service used to trigger experience. This connections are outbound.

In this blog will see an example to create a connection to mailjet which can be used to trigger a expereience for abandon cart(covered in another blog post)- here

Setup mailjet account

Create a new account if you don’t have any- https://www.mailjet.com/

In the Account Settings => select optin “API Key management”

Note the API Key and Secret Key

Generate a secret key if not already generated.

Create a connection in Sitecore CDP portal

Navigate to “Develoepr center” => Connections option

Search for existing connection or “Add Connection”

Select “Destination” option for Flows to send data.

Fille in the required details and select icon-

Authentication

Next setup the Basic Authentication. Copy the API Key as User Name and Password as Secret Key and “Test Authentication”

Setup the request

Get the api endpoint and the request body from here – https://dev.mailjet.com/email/guides/getting-started/

// Sample mail 
{
    "Messages": [
        {
            "From": {
                "Email": "pilot@mailjet.com",
                "Name": "Your Mailjet Pilot"
            },
            "To": [
                {
                    "Email": "passenger@mailjet.com",
                    "Name": "Customer 1"
                }
            ],
            "Subject": "Your cart is waiting",
            "TextPart": "Dear passenger, Welcome to pastoral grill",
            "HTMLPart": "<h3>Dear passenger 1, welcome to <a href=\"https://www.mailjet.com/\">Mailjet!</a></h3><br />May the delivery force be with you!"
        }
    ]
}

Tet the connection-

Note- add sender address to the contact list in mailjet or the mails will be blocked. Also the mails from gmail wont be triggered. Use this URL to add sender address-

https://app.mailjet.com/account/sender

Check if the test Mail received-

Click Next, Review & Save

Connection is created and this can be used when an expereince is triggered.

Next setup the Triggered Expereince

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Sitecore Send – How to Resubscribe a user to a mailing list

To resubscribe a user goto the mailing list where a user has unsubscribed, navigate to the Unsubscribe tab-

In the action menu – Select Change Status option

Select the Active option and Change Status-

The user will now be made Active and any mails from this mailing list will be sent to the user-

Or you can also ask user to Subscribe again following the steps in this blog.

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Setup XM Cloud Site to host on Vercel

In this blog post we will Link the XM Cloud to Vercel. The XM Cloud site will be hosted in Vercel by Seting up the host

In this blog post we saw how to setup the Vercel Project manually but this whole process can be automated by Creating and linking the host.

Configure Hosting Connection

Login to XM Cloud and navigate to Connections –> Hosting tab

Click on Create connection –> Vercel

Login to Vercel and add Integration

Select the account to connect. In my case its personal account

Select the all projects to integrate, dont selecy any specific project or you will get error. See errors section-

Confirm and Add Integration-

A new Hosting connection is created with the name-

Setup Hosting

Navigate to Projects ==> Environments ==> Sites Tab

Link Vercel Site (Connection been already created)

You can create Hosting connection from here too.

Click “Create and link”

Now you can see the Site is linked to host i.e. Vercel.

Once the Site is linked you should be able to see the project in Vercel

Login to vercel and see the newly created project and deployment in-progress.

In few minutes the deployment should be completed

Click on the domains and should see the Site-

Errors-

Vercel installation will require ‘All Projects’ access. Please change the access on the Vercel installation

Resolution

Delete any exisitng Hosting Connection and re-create the hosting with Integration to be allowed to all projects.

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Use Experience Edge GraphQL to access XM Cloud hosted site

GraphQL delivery API is used to access the published site content. Experience Edge for Experience Manager (XM) is an API-based service from Sitecore that gives you globally replicated, scalable access to your XM Cloud items, layout, and media. You can use the standard publish tools in XM Cloud , but instead of rendering content from a self-hosted Content Delivery environment, Experience Edge provides you a Sitecore-hosted GraphQL API. 

To access the XM Cloud hosted published site content using Expereince Edge follow these steps-

Login to XM Cloud. Navigate to Projects ==> Environments ==>Details tab.

Launch IDE for Live GraphQL

The URL for GraphQL IDE –

https://edge.sitecorecloud.io/api/graphql/ide

GraphQL edge endpoint is –

https://edge.sitecorecloud.io/api/graphql/v1

Let stry a simple query to get siteinfo-

If you see this error- JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data

This means a header with GraphQL token is not provided or incorrect.

Generate Delivery API token-

Add X_GQL-TOKEN in header with newly generated token vlaue

You should now be able to access only the published Site content using Experience Edge.

If you are not able to see the items, you might have not published the ietms

Publish items to edge

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Create Vercel project to host XM Cloud Site

Sitecore XM Cloud Vercel connector helps to host Website to Vercel

Before using this connector you have to create Project and Environment.

Prerequisite

Before we ould start configuring Project in Vercel we need following info-

JSS APP Name- can be found and should be same as configured in package.json in sxastarter folder

In this case it is sxastarter

GRAPHQL ENDPOINT

GraphQL endpoint for published Sitecore items i.e. Delivery/Live endpoint is –

https://edge.sitecorecloud.io/api/graphql/v1

Sitecore API Key

This should be the GraphQL Delivery token i.e. GQL token-

There are different ways to generate GQL Token. One of the way is generate from portal. Login to XM Cloud and navigate to Projects ==> Environments ==> Details tab

Click on Generate Delivery API Key (Note this key as this won’t be avilable again and needs to be re-generated again if lost)

Note this API key as this is required later whilst configuring the Vercel hosting.

Publish Site

Publish the site to Edge before starting to configure Project in Vercel, since we are configuring GraphQL Delivery API token items in Sitecore needs to be published

Create a Project in Vercel

Login to Vercel and Create Project-

Since I have logged in using GitHub account it displays the repositories in Github the project will be based on-

Import the repository-

Configure Project

Once the project is created configure the project by selecting the Framework and repo folder FE code exists-

Choose the Nextjs Framework

Choose the sxastarter folder from the repo i.e. /src/sxastarter

Add following environment variables extracted earlier-

JSS_APP_NAME – sxastarter

GRAPH_QL_ENDPOINT – https://edge.sitecorecloud.io/api/graphql/v1

SITECORE_API_KEY – Delivery API Key generated from portal.

Should have this confiogured in the Vercel Project-

Deploy the Project

Deployment complete-

Visit the Site and should get the same view as configued in local environment and Experience Editor-

Thats all for how to create a Vercel Project and deploy site.

Errors-

If you see error-

The field 'item' does not exist on the type 'query'

Resolution-

Publish the site

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Sitecore Headless SXA – Create, apply and restrict a custom style to renderings

In this blog post I will show how to apply a custom style to a rendering.

Requirement-

I have a requirement to add extra spacing between the components.

There is already a indent-top style which provides this space (20px) but neesd 100px space.

And the same can see in Experience Editor-

Same can also see in css file in sxastarter project-

Create a custom style (indent-large-top)

Create custom style in Sitecore-

Create a new style (Indent Large Top) in Sitecore under Presentations => Styles ==> Spacing

/sitecore/content/scxmcloud/sxastarter/Presentation/Styles/Spacing

Provide the value of the Style-

Create a style in FE project with the same value-

There are various ways you should be able to do this. I am adding 5 times more space to the existing indent-top style.

_indent.scss

// $middle-margin is defined in _margins.scss
.indent-large-top {
  margin-top: calc($middle-margin * 5);
}

Apply a custom style to rendering

Select the component or container you want to apply style and choose option “Indent Large Top” in Spacing section

Now the space between the 2 component is increased and is 100px as per the requirement.

New style applied to container-

Apply style to specific renderings

As above when the style was created it was applied to all renderings.

If you want to restrict the style to be applied to only certain renderings you can do so by setting Allowed renderings field in new created Style item.

For “Indent Large Top” only SectionContainer will be able to see the new Spacing Style.

In Experience Editor you wont see the “Indent Large Top” for other renderings e.g.- for container rendering-

While for Section Container rendering the new style is available-

References-

https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/sxa/103/sitecore-experience-accelerator/add-a-style-for-a-rendering.html

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How to set background image using Next js in Sitecore XM Cloud

This is a very common scenario where a background image needs to be set to certain components. Banner’s on any page on your website is a very common place to have a background image.

This blog assumes you have setup the Foundation Head setup or have your own Nextjs project setup implemented using the Sitecore NextJS SDK.

Note: This is not specific to XM Cloud but for any Headless implementation

Foundation Head already has an example on setting the background image using params. In this blog post will explore how this works and where in Sitecore the image can be applied. Will see how this can applied using using OOTB _Background Image item.

To apply image background using rendering parameters to the container see this blog here

Applying background image using rendering field to the components

Background image can be applied to components inheriting the existing __Background Image item to the custom component template.

Create a template for your component. Here I am creating a Banner component-

Inherit _Background Image from /sitecore/templates/Foundation/Experience Accelerator/Presentation/_Background Image

_Background Image has “Background Image” and “Stretch mode” field.

Note that there is a space between the field names, although not recommended but this comes OOTB.

Create a “Banner” JSON Rendering and provide the “Parameters Template”, “Datasource Location” and “Datasource Template” as per your requirement and add this rendering to the “Available Renderings”

Create a Nextjs component in sxastarter project

Note below how the “Background Image” field is set. This is due to the same in field name. Not recommended but this is OOTB.

View this gist on GitHub

Experience Editor-

Add a container component in Main placeholder-

Add a newly created component (Banner) in Container placeholder-

Create or select associated content

Once the component is added you should see the button to Add Background Image ( ths is added when the template inherits from _Background Image template.

Select the Background Image and Save-

You should now able to see the background image to component-

Rendering Host-

Reference-

https://doc.sitecore.com/xmc/en/users/xm-cloud/add-a-background-image.html

XM CLoud Dev – How to set background image using rendering parameters

This is a very common scenario where a background image needs to be set to certain components. Banner’s on any page on your website is a very common place to have a background image.

Note: This is not specific to XM Cloud but for any Headless implementation

Foundation Head already has an example on setting the background image using params. In this blog post will explore how this works and where in Sitecore the image can be applied. Will see how this can applied using Rendering Parameters and using OOTB _Background Image item.

Applying background image using rendering parameters

Background image can be applied to container. If you are using Foundation Head repo you can find this component OOTB.

Thre Container rendering is at following lcoation in Sitecore –

/sitecore/layout/Renderings/Feature/JSS Experience Accelerator/Page Structure/Container

Note Other properties- IsRenderingsWithDynamicPlaceholders and IsRenderingsWithDynamicPlaceholders is set to true

Rendering parameter is located – /sitecore/templates/Feature/JSS Experience Accelerator/Page Structure/Rendering Parameters/Container

Rendering paramter template has the BackgroundImage field. The background image will be set based on the image selected in this field.

How the image is set in Head

Lets see background image set in nextjs (sxastarter) Container.tsx

// image string from the rendering parameters
 let backgroundImage = props.params.BackgroundImage as string;
  let backgroundStyle: { [key: string]: string } = {};
  console.log('backgroundImage1');
  console.log(backgroundImage);
  if (backgroundImage) {
    const prefix = `${sitecoreContext.pageState !== 'normal' ? '/sitecore/shell' : ''}/-/media/`;
    backgroundImage = `${backgroundImage?.match(BACKGROUND_REG_EXP)?.pop()?.replace(/-/gi, '')}`;
    backgroundStyle = {
      backgroundImage: `url('${prefix}${backgroundImage}')`,
    };
  }

  return (
    <div className={`component container-default ${styles}`} id={id ? id : undefined}>

// style applied to <div> having background image
      <div className="component-content" style={backgroundStyle}>
        <div className="row">
          <Placeholder name={phKey} rendering={props.rendering} />
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
};

Lets see this in working in experience editor and rendering host

In the experience editor main section add a container component.

Once the rendering is added, goto “Edit component properties” and add an background image

Now you are able to see the background image applied ot container and I have added RichText in containerto show the image in background-

Rendering Host displays the image in background-

Nested containers to apply differnt background image or component

If you add only one container the image will be applied to the main section.

To resolve this you can add a container within main container. add mutiple containers as per your requirements. To set the background image to specific container in this example contianer-2 select the parent(i.e. container) and set the image by Editing the Component properties

This should apply the different images for various other sections in the sampe page and since the Container rendering has IsRenderingsWithDynamicPlaceholders property set this should create a unique Id for each container.

Here for example container-2 and container-3 is a child of container-1

Rendering Host displays banckgroung images with there respective components-

Isusue- Here you can see there is a white patch when applied to child container and the image is applied to inner div.

To resolev this apply the image to the outer div instead in container.tsx

return (
    <div className={`component container-default ${styles}`} style={backgroundStyle} id={id ? id : undefined}> // backgroundStyle added
      <div className="component-content"> // backgroundStyle removed
        <div className="row">
          <Placeholder name={phKey} rendering={props.rendering} />
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  );

Here you can seee a full width background image

Hope these tips helps.

Sitecore CDP- Generate browser ID

The browser ID is a universally unique identifier (UUID) that Sitecore CDP assigns to every user of your application. It associates sessions, events, and orders with the respective user.

To generate browser id at server side in this case using postman use following URL-

https://{{apiEndpoint}}/{{apiVersion}}/browser/create.json?client_key={{CLIENT_KEY}}&message={}

API Endpoint

{{apiEndpoint}} – API target endpoint depends on the region client key is available in. Following are the regions and url available at the point of writing this blog and as per this document

Europe – https://api.boxever.com

Asia Pacific – https://api-ap-southeast-2-production.boxever.com

United States – https://api-us.boxever.com

See here for more details on the Sitecore CDP Rest API

API Version

API Version is v1.2

Client Key

See here for more details on How to get Client Key and API Token

Get the client key from the Sandbox/CDP & Personalise portal.

Login to portal – https://app.boxever.com/#/

Top right click the clog icon. Select API Access option

Get teh client key from this page-

Request/Response-

Status- OK. The request was served successfuly

Anantmous(Guest) should be created. Browser ID is in “ref” field in the response

Check the guest details in portal with the Browser ID-

Goto the Guests page –

Search guests with browser id. (bid: <<browser id>>)

This should the Guest Type as Visitor which means its Anonymous and not yet known or uniquely identified.

CURL code snippet-

curl --location -g --request GET 'https://api.boxever.com/v1.2/browser/create.json?client_key=<<client key>>&message={}'

C# code snippet-

var client = new RestClient("https://api.boxever.com/v1.2/browser/create.json?client_key=<<client key>>&message={}");
client.Timeout = -1;
var request = new RestRequest(Method.GET);
IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request);
Console.WriteLine(response.Content);

Python code snippet-

import http.client

conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection("api.boxever.com")
payload = ''
headers = {}
conn.request("GET", "/v1.2/browser/create.json?client_key=<<code key>>&message=%7B%7D", payload, headers)
res = conn.getresponse()
data = res.read()
print(data.decode("utf-8"))

References

Preparing to integrate with Sitecore CDP

Understanding integration details

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